DESERT UPDATES from Connie Sue Beadell

My report this time is
to update you on our TJM sponsored trip in August 2004 along Len's lost Callawa Track, as reported in the first of 3 articles in 4X4 Australia, February 2005 edition.

This piece of road was constructed by the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party in 1963,
and was the second to last road made before the ending of the road project. It extends north-west from Gary Junction, through
Well 35 on the Canning Stock Route, and joins up with the Overland Telegraph Line near Eighty Mile Beach
in far NW Western Australia. It follows a line of trigonometric stations erected by National Mapping the previous
year. It was superseded almost immediately by the WAPET road (Kidson Track) for which Len's road is often confused as the two roads are very closely aligned. The two roads
were also constructed at the very same time. The WAPET crew had more resources
at their disposal and it was this route that was largely used instead. Our job in August was to retrace
Len's lost road to make sure that it does not get forgotten.

This task was not an easy one, as there were only traces of the original road
left. This meant hours of painstaking pre-trip research and plotting by Mick Hutton (my soon-to-be husband!!). This trip was a real Off-Track Expedition, which basically means that there was no road at all. The Retrace involved 661 kms of low-range,
1st and 2nd gear travel. We averaged 37.7 kms per day for the 18 days of the Callawa leg.

At this point I must say that the Callawa Track is not a trip to be attempted without extensive preparation, most importantly fuel, water, tyres and navigation. A fuel drop midway is a necessity pre-trip as the fuel economy for this level of Off-Track travel can range between 30 to 50 litres per 100 kms. For that distance you will not be able to carry enough fuel and water to see you through. The road is not marked on current maps and is not a track to be followed in any sense (don't be fooled by the photo above at the beginning of the Track from Gary Junction). We saw traces of it every day, but it cannot be used to navigate a way through. Please contact Beadell Tours before contemplating travelling on the Callawa Track.

The tyres were another issue entirely. The party had a total of
70+ punctures for the whole trip, bearing in mind that 5 of the 8 vehicles that started did not finish the entire distance.
The countryside was suffering from the effects of cyclonic rains and subsequent fires which left a terrain full of spikes
as hard as steel all over the landscape. 99% of the punctures were stakes in the shoulder and sidewalls. Mick and I
had MRF Steel Muscle L LT 7.50R16 - 14 ply Tubed tyres on our vehicles and we were the leading 2 vehicles of the 3 vehicles that finished.
Basically you need a tyre that is thick and strong in the sidewall or you will not get through.

All that said, for Mum and I it was an important trip, as it completed
our first-hand experience of all of the roads made by Len and the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party. It was a leg that
Len had not taken us on in the early days as it was a long way away from Adelaide and "not very interesting".
Being able to finish the Callawa means that I have now travelled on all of Len's roads; something of which I feel very
privileged.

To mark the start and finish of the Callawa we erected 2 plaques, plus another at a junction with
the WAPET road at a place called Twin Gum Hill. To incorporate some early history into our trip
Mick erected 4 plaques to mark where Rudall (2 places in 1897), P.E. Warburton (1873) and Larry Wells (Calvert Expedition 1896)
crossed the Callawa Track.

To continue with the Callawa Track Mick and I have incorporated the leg from Gary
Junction to Twin Gum Hill in our July "End of and Era" Expedition with Beadell Tours. Click on the link Expeditions
to find out more about this type of trip and the preparation required.

It was a superb experience.

OUR THANKS GO TO -:

TJM Products for their overall sponsorship

Australian Geographic for their help with the plaques

Reids Radiodata HF communications

Len Beadell Books & Tapes

MRF Tyres

Kunawarritji Community

Codan HF radios

Natural Lightscapes

CONNIE SUE BEADELL

18 July 2004

Quite
a lot has happened since my last report. More plaques
have been erected, more stolen (including one of my replicas...) and more are to
be done this year. Our total count of Len’s replicas will number 25 or 26 once
this current batch have been finished.

We are also adding a few here and there; for example on the Gary Junction Road near Jupiter
Well. As some of you know the new road location (regraded due to bad flooding a
few years back) has bypassed Len’s plaque on a desert oak 11 miles east of
Jupiter Well. What we are going to do this year is replace the plaque on the
original tree (we secured the one Len erected in September 1990 for
safe-keeping), and add a pointer plaque onto a newly blazed desert oak south of
the new part of the road. This new plaque will have the bearing and distance to
Len’s tree; by the way, that portion of the old road is visible if you want to
drive to it instead of walking or bushbashing over to it.

We also plan to erect plaques indicating the start and finish of The Gunbarrel Road
Construction Party’s "Callawa Track"; the stretch of unused road from Well
35 on the Canning Stock Route north west to Callawa. The Wapet Road made that
part of Len’s road network obselete almost before it was finished, but we
would like to ensure it never gets forgotten (more on our Callawa Track Retrace
trip later). The junction of the Wapet and Callawa Track will also sport a brand
new plaque with a new post design.

The Toyota
Landcruiser Club of Victoria have just completed a project to partially restore
and move the old burnt-out GRCP Ration Truck to Kiwirrkurra for its protection.
It involved a move of around 30 kms from its original site and was done with the
help of the Kiwirrkurra Community. A new plaque indicates the original site of
the truck’s demise, and one was also placed with the truck giving some history
of what it was and why it is special. Incidentally, Doug Stoneham (Len’s
bulldozer driver with The Gunbarrel Road Construction Party) joined the Ration
Truck group, and was involved in some of the preparations. He was actually there
when the truck caught fire in 1960 (during the making of the Gary Junction road
to Jupiter Well), and all of this happened a few days into the "Longest Towing
Operation in History" when Doug towed the broken-down grader from this area
around 750 kms back to Giles. Our thanks go to Charles Norman and his team, plus
the community of Kiwirrkurra, for their hard work and enthusiasm.

All of these added plaques will increase our total number to 32; that is a lot of stamping!!

After
all of our efforts to replace Len’s drum at Talawana last year the plaque was
stolen from it after a few short months. You can imaging the extent of our
frustration! I made a new replica very soon after and thanks to Malcolm Bell
from Perth, who willingly volunteered to make a new drum at home of his own
theft-resistant design, Talawana now has a plaque once more. At around the same
time my 50 miles west of Giles replica on the old Gunbarrel Highway was stolen
and I must say that I began to wonder if I was beating my head against a brick
wall by trying to keep these pieces of history alive. Thanks to the willing
helpers of the Russell Guest Beadell Tracks Tour (May 2004) a new 50 miles west
of Giles plaque is now in-situ.

One
exciting piece of news that makes it all worth while is the resurrection of
another of Len’s long lost plaques, this time east of Sandy Blight Junction.
Thanks to one clear photo from our invaluable helper David Hewitt I was able to
stamp a new plaque that has been put on a new post (also arranged by David
Hewitt) 12 miles west of Liebig Bore on the Gary Junction Road. The original
plaque and post was lost long ago I suspect to fire, but we pretty accurately
narrowed down the place and it was put into position by the Toyota Landcruiser
Club of Victoria on their way to their Ration Truck Project in June 2004. Thank
you to them once again!!

Back
to the Russell Guest Tour of May 2004, I would like to heartily thank them for
their generous support of our Plaque Restoration Project. In order to continue
with the plaque work we have decided to try some fund-raising, and the May
participants were our guinea pigs! I made a memorial plaque which we raffled off
and was won by a very deserving fellow from Kooweerup in Victoria. The money
will go towards the cost of security screws, paint, aluminium, and steel posts
onto which we will need to eventually secure all of our plaques, due to the
security issue and also the eventual deterioration of Lens posts and
trees. Some are holding out well despite nearby fire also, but I suspect our
luck won’t continue for ever.

A great
deal of thanks and gratitude go to all of the enthusiastic friends who are
assisting us to keep up the maintenance of Len’s plaques and posts.

Connie Sue Beadell

12 September 2003

On behalf of the Beadell family, I wish to heartily thank all of the participants of the Russell Guest Canning Stock Route tour of 2003 for their wonderful
donation towards our Plaque Restoration project. The money will be put to good
use next year for projects including the completion of 3 plaques along the Gary
Junction road. I still have many other projects lined up and I'm very glad that
Len's work, and our efforts to preserve what we can, is acknowledged and
appreciated.

With many thanks......Connie Sue Beadell.

MAY - JULY 2003

This year has been a busy one for us, with 3 trips covering many of Len's roads and incorporating a couple of major plaque projects (taking our new replica plaque total to 21).

My
first trip was another Russell Guest tour; a repeat performance of the
"special" we did last May. Again we covered the Vokes Hill Corner Rd,
Connie Sue Highway, and the Gunbarrel in it's entirety from Jackie Junction to
Victory Downs, among others. Doug Stoneham, Len's bulldozer driver in the
Gunbarrel Road Construction Party, joined me on this one and as usual kept
everyone entertained with his stories!! I want to thank Simon Murphy and his
team at Rawlinna, and the women of the Kalka community (NW tip of South
Australia) for their wonderful hospitality.

June
saw Mum, Doug and I together again, this time accompanying the Australian
Geographic Gunbarrel Expedition. The 2 week trip started at Coober Pedy and
wound its way north from the Anne Beadell Highway up the Connie Sue, across the
Parallel Rd 2 to the Tjukayirla Roadhouse on the Great Central Rd. We continued
on the David Carnegie Rd to the Gunbarrel Highway where we turned east to
replace a long lost plaque of Len's 23 miles west of Everard Junction. His
original plaque was in-situ for only a short while after it was erected in 1958
before it was lost or destroyed by fire. The bloodwood tree he used is
thankfully still in pretty good nick, so we widened the original blaze, painted
it, and my replica plaque was screwed into position. My thanks go to the many
willing hands who helped to get the job done before the rain set in! From here
we continued to the Heather Highway, Warburton, the old Gunbarrel to Warakurna
and finally Yulara. My thanks also go to Todd Tai from Australian Geographic,
and David Hewitt who helped to lead the Expedition. A good time was had by all
of the 50 participants!

After
we said goodbye to the AG gang Mum and I and some friends headed off for the far
western end of the Windy Corner Road. Here we placed a new drum next to the
badly rusted one that Len put a plaque on to mark Talawana. We removed the
original plaque from the old drum and placed it onto the new, after painting the
new drum to protect it from the extremes of weather. It was a highly successful
operation, one that I had been trying to do for quite some time. My thanks go to
all who participated, namely Mum and Phil Sexton, Charles and Margaret Norman,
and Mick Hutton. I also want to thank David Hewitt and Alan O'Shaughnessy who
were a tremendous help in the preparation for this project. From here we had a
leisurely trip home via the Eagle Highway, Hunt Oil Road, Connie Sue and Anne
Beadell Highways. By the time we were heading home the building of the new
roadhouse at Ilkurlka was finished (junction of the Aboriginal Business Rd and
the Anne Beadell Highway) and they were about to furnish it inside. It is an
impressive complex, but fuel will only be available by booking in advance at
this stage.

Below is a brief update of the state of the roads -:

The Anne Beadell Highway - In good shape going west from around 70 kms west of
the SA / WA border, having been recently regraded by the Laverton shire. The new
Ilkurlka complex is around 170 kms east of Neale Junction. The SA leg continues
to have some washouts and short stretches of bad corrugations.

Emu to Maralinga Rd - South as far as the half-way tree is pretty good, barring
early sandhills and some fallen trees.

Vokes Hill Corner Rd - Pretty good after some sandhill work for a while after
leaving the Anne Beadell Highway.

Connie Sue Highway - The regrade continues north for a short distance beyond
Neale Junction. The rest continues to be not too bad although is corrugated in
spots, with bad washouts here and there. South of Neale Jn is rough around the
Nullarbor, then improves for a short way to the Tjuntjunjarra turnoff. The rest
is very picturesque (despite some older burnt out areas) and quite OK. A new
sign is being erected in Sept 03 to mark the northern end of the Connie Sue,
thanks to David Hewitt.

Gunbarrel Highway - Regraded to Carnegie from the Wiluna shire sign around 25
kms west of Geraldton bore. The rest of the western section is the same
(corrugated), now passing our new plaque around 0.5 kms west of Geraldton Bore,
and a new information board at the base of Mt Beadell. A new, taller post is
being erected at Jackie Junction, thanks again to David Hewitt. The old
Gunbarrel from the Patjarr turnoff to Warakurna is good barring some rocky creek
crossings, but has also suffered some fires (our 70 miles west of Giles plaque
had the narrowest escape). The whole eastern section is excellent.

Sandy Blight Junction Rd - Some of the plaques along here have had a narrow
escape from the many fires that have inflicted this area; namely the half-way
point between Giles and Sandy Blight Junction, Sir Frederick Range post, 140 m
blazed tree and the Tropic of Capricorn post.

Gary Junction Rd - Regraded and relocated in some spots due to flooding. Plans
are afoot to place the Ration truck in a cage with an explanation board; great
news and thanks to Charles Norman for organising this. Also, we have made a new
blaze to explain how to get to Len's original blazed tree 11 miles east of
Jupiter Well (the new road now bypasses it). Both blazes are prepared, but I
won't be able to attach plaques onto them until next year.

Gary Highway - Gary Junction to the Kidson track turnoff is quite overgrown;
south is much better but we had lots of fallen trees and mulga stakes to clear.
South of Windy Corner is roughest, with overgrowth and some bad gutters.

Windy Corner Rd - Stretches of high spinifex growth easterly, extremely
corrugated between Well 24 and the Cotton Creek turnoff to the west, then is
newly regraded. Our new drum is now at Talawana at the far western end.

Parallel Rd 2 - (not Len's road) - Good.

David Carnegie Rd - (not Len's road) - Some spinifex growth between the
wheeltracks down south. Becomes rough with rocks and washouts closer to the
Gunbarrel Highway.

Eagle Highway - (not Len's road) - Northern shot line to the Eagle from the
Windy Corner Rd is very overgrown with washouts here and there, but still quite
traversable. The Eagle Highway itself is more defined and in better condition,
although still has the odd washout.

Heather Highway - (not Len's road) - extremely corrugated from the Gunbarrel
until you hit the 50 km community link to the Great Central Rd.

Hello.
I thought it was time to update you on how things are going. Since my last
report mid 2001 Mum and I have participated in numerous Beadell
tracks tours with Russell Guest; one of which was a "special" trip in May 2002 covering
some of Len's roads not incorporated in his regular September
trip. This included the northern half of the Emu to Maralinga road (I checked up on
Len's plaque at the half way point, and it's still in fine shape), the Vokes Hill Corner road, the Connie Sue Highway, plus the Gunbarrel
Highway from Jackie Junction right through to Victory Downs. Permits
for the Pitjantjatjara leg was obtained only with the help and company
of David and Margaret Hewitt (our invaluable friends!) and we thank
them once again. It was a fantastic trip and I'm pleased to say that our new replacement
plaques erected in the last few years are still in good shape. So
far so good! We increased our total to 20 by replacing Len's plaque on
top of Observatory Hill. This was Len's very first aluminium plaque, erected on
3 September 1955, and we didn't want to lose it. On numerous occasions it
has disappeared into the scrub, so I made a replica and we have the original safely
at home. The state of the roads was very good for the most part,
especially the eastern Gunbarrel. The numerous Aboriginal communities along this
stretch ensure that it will be well maintained, and it doesn't corrugate
like the ironstone gravel west of Jackie Junction.

Russell
has planned to repeat this trip in May 2003, permits pending......We
have also had the chance to check up on Len's plaques along the western
portion of the Gunbarrel in September 2001. They were all fine, unfortunately
though the road was still in it's usual corrugated state. Large
areas of water still lay around Lake Cohen (Gary Highway), Mungkilli
claypan (Gunbarrel) and the Gary Junction road was closed due to flooding.

Mum
and I have just come back from a trip along the Gary Junction road and it's since been
regraded and relocated to avoid the low lying areas and the whole
leg from Sandy Blight Junction to Gary Junction is an 80 km/hr highway.
The same can't be said for the southern leg of the Gary Highway however
(it has not been regraded since its completion in 1963) - we might have to try and get
an Aboriginal community to set up there! The Laverton shire
has plans to regrade their portion of the Anne Beadell Highway (we
found a few water tank and toilet blocks along here which weren't there last year....),
so maintenance on the whole is progressing well.

Next
year I have plans to replace Len's drum at Talawana; the plaque is
still fine, but the drum is quite rusty. I have also made a new replacementplaque
for one of Len's trees on the Gunbarrel; one that has not had a plaque
on it for over 20 years. I will leave the location of this one a surprise for the time
being. All will be revealed in due course!! At some later
date I will relocate the 11 miles east of Jupiter Well plaque (Gary
Junction Road), as we had to remove it from the original tree for fear of it getting
lost. The new relocated road in this region has already rendered the
original route past this tree almost invisible; so once we can be sure that the
new road is safe from the ravages of the weather I'll put this plaque
back on a corresponding spot on the new road, and put a marker pointing to
the original tree.

In
April 2001 Connie and Anne Beadell, along with friend Phil Sexton, were escorted
into the lands of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara people in the north-west of South
Australia by David and Margaret Hewitt, and two of their friends. The task at
hand was to replace 3 more of Len's missing aluminium plaques, made once again
by Connie with Len's original letter and number punches.
Two of the plaques in question were positioned near Mt Lindsay on Len's Mt
Davies road, the southerly one marking the site for a mobile
meteorological station. This station was used prior to the completion of the Giles weather
station around 1956. Len's original Bloodwood tree was still in fine form for
the northerly plaque, and the southerly one required a new post which was
organised by David and Margaret. We had the help of two local aboriginal people,
who kindly came down for the day to escort us through the neighbouring community
of Watarru, situated on the eastern side of Mt Lindsay. They were also a great
help in digging the hole for the met. station post!!

Once
these two plaques were securely attached, we carried on through the
Ngaanyatjarra lands in eastern Western Australia to replace one more of Len's
signs on the Gunbarrel Highway. This plaque marked the most easterly point of
the road north of Mt Fanny, and also required a new post.

The
Mt Fanny plaque marks our 19th replica sign replaced in the desert, a fact of
which we are very proud. Our sincere thanks again go to David and Margaret
Hewitt, without whom this leg of our project would not have been possible.

OUR PLAQUE REPLACEMENT PROJECT

We've
had a busy year 2000, replacing 16 of Len's aluminium plaques. He erected some
45 or so during the course of his desert roadmaking, but over the years many of
them have been stolen. Lennie himself replaced many missing signs during his
outback trips (some of them have been replaced 4 or 5 times), and we decided
they were too important to forget. The plaques are not only a part of history,
but are invaluable as a guide to travellers to show them where they are and
point out things of interest.

The plaque replicas were made as closely to Len's originals as possible, with the
addition of the "replica June 2000" added to the bottom. Connie made 6
of the new plaques for the Gunbarrel Highway - 3 for the section between Mulga
Park and Pipalyatjara, and 3 between Giles and Jackie Junction. They were made
using Len's original letter and number punches and all but 2 were erected on
Len's original posts and tree blazes (2 new posts were required, one at the 50
miles west of Mulga Park sign, and one at the Kintore Avenue/Gunbarrel Hwy
junction). We also replaced all 10 of the signs along the Sandy Blight Junction
road as all of these, bar one, were also missing. The one still remaining we
removed and replaced with our replica for its preservation, although it in
itself was a replacement of Len's in 1989. These 10 Sandy Blight Junction road
plaques were punched to our specifications by Roger Henwood, a Maintenance
Officer from Woomera, using punches of the same font and size as Len's. Eight of the Sandy Blight Junction road plaques were
placed on Len's original trees and posts (the turnoff to the Sir Frederick Range
summit, and the Tietkens Tree plaque both required new posts). The plaques were
fixed on with Maxbond adhesive (donated by Fullers), and attached with special
one way screws. Finally, we touched up what we could with a fresh coat of white
paint.

It was a very
rewarding project, and we would like to thank the many people who assisted us
(especially David and Margaret Hewitt). But, it doesn't end there. We already
have some more replacements in the pipeline for next year, and plan for this to
be an ongoing project. Apart from the thefts, eventually the posts are going to
need more permanent replacements due to the never ending appetites of white
ants, and fire.

We would be very happy for feedback from people travelling on Len's roads, and information on missing or damaged plaques and posts would be much appreciated.